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ONE BILLION:
How much is one billion? It's common knowledge that a billion has three more zeros than a million, and is one thousand times a million, but comprehending its enormous magnitude is often misunderstood. To appreciate the distance of one billion light years, the concept of one billion people, or the value of one billion dollars, let's try putting this number into perspective.
To count to one thousand, counting one number every second continuously, it would take 17 minutes. Counting to one million at the same rate, it would take 12 days (counting nonstop, day and night). But counting to one billion would take 32 years!
That's right; years.
Imagine counting $1 billion with $1,000 dollar bills (hypothetically). Using the above calculations, at the rate of $1,000 per second, you'd be counting your cash for 12 days!
Bill Gates was estimated to be worth approximately $40 billion in 1998. At the present age of 44, let's predict that he lives another 40 years. Assuming he retires tomorrow, and never earns a dime of interest, in order to deplete his funds at a constant rate over the next 40 years, he would have to spend $1 billion (or $1000 million) a year! That's $83 million a month, $19 million a week, or breaking it down further, he would have to spend over $114,000 an hour, day and night, for 40 years. Bill Gates, ladies and gentleman, is a rich man.
One final comparison: one million is one thousand thousand, and one billion is one thousand million. As illustrated below, there is an astonishing difference between an "m" and a "b" in front of "illion!" Using the same scale below (where one billion is 6 inches to the right of one million), one trillion would reside on the same line, 500 feet to the right of one billion!
0____________________________________________________________1 Billion
' "
where ' is 1000
and " is 1000000 |
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Post time 19-11-2006 08:29 PM
变色卡
